Google user data requests from US gov't spiked in 2013, says report

The U.S. government's efforts to gather user data from Google has ballooned this year, according to a report first obtained by ABC News.

Despite all the criticism, agencies like the National Security Agency are not slowing down the effort to gather information about Americans.

The numbers are shedding new light on the recent explosion of government efforts to collect internet users' data. Google is set to officially release the report later Thursday.

The report shows that in the first half of 2013, the U.S. government submitted almost 11,000 requests to Google for information.

Some of these requests were from intelligence agencies like the NSA, but most of the requests came from law enforcement agencies like the FBI and local police departments.

The report also shows that the requests for information by agencies in this country were much higher than what agencies overseas have been asking for.

In the first half of 2013, Google received 14,961 requests for user data from foreign governments, and complied with the vast majority of them. That figure is up from 12,969 a year ago.

In the U.S., compared to the 11,000 requests in 2013, the figure was closer to 8,000 the previous year.

Since 2009, the requests for information have more than doubled. Google says it has complied with 83 percent of those requests.

The company has also joined other tech companies like Microsoft and Yahoo in filing suit against the U.S. Justice Department, urging a federal judge to allow them to release more information about the NSA program.